David Moeckel of Port St. Lucie took this picture Thursday night of flooding rain outside his home. The car was making waves as it drove through his flooded street on Academic Way in Tradition.

Cars flooded in a Tradition Square parking lot Thursday night.

WPTV.com

Some areas of Port St. Lucie hardest hit by the end-of-week storms in the past two days were still underwater Friday afternoon, even as most of the Treasure Coast was starting to dry out.

The National Weather Service let expire a tornado watch for Martin, St. Lucie, Palm Beach and Okeechobee counties that lasted until 1 p.m. Friday. The watch had been issued at 7:20 a.m.

"You could still see a shower or storm, but the most intense activity is well off shore,'' said Tony Cristaldi, meteorologist with the weather service. Cristaldi said the weather service received no reports of tornadoes on the Treasure Coast.

While blustery weather continued to pose a risk for boaters, cooler, drier weather is up next.

"Starting tonight, it will be down in the upper 50s," Cristaldi said. "For the Treasure Coast, tomorrow's high will be only in the upper 60s to 70. Saturday's when we will really feel the difference, with low temperatures in the lower- to mid-40s.''

Rains on Thursday night were especially heavy in western areas of Port St. Lucie. At least 20 cars were partially under water and damaged in a Tradition Square parking lot. Two schools were affected in the past two days and some neighborhoods were still sopping wet. Parts of the Seasons development in Tradition remained under water Friday afternoon.

PGA Village resident and local businessman Larry Lee said the water in his Sable Creek neighborhood was at least 3-feet high in the middle of the road. He said as he was following his wife home in his sport utility vehicle from a Christmas party Thursday night the water reached up to his wife's car door as she was driving through the neighborhood.

"She got frightened so we turned into a neighbor's driveway," he said.

Lee said while he was driving around Friday morning he saw a Mercedes-Benz hood-down in a ditch at the intersection of Steeple Chase Court and Saddlebrook Drive in his neighborhood. Later in the afternoon he also saw a Lexus stuck in a ditch near the same area as the Mercedes.

"If you come down here right now, you'd think you were in a river," Lee said by phone late afternoon. "What I'm seeing right now is what we saw in the 2004 hurricanes. It looks like a hurricane hit our neighborhood."

The South Florida Water Management District's flood control system "is operating normally and moving water'' said Gabriel Margasak, a spokesman for the district.

Margasak said water levels in the canals had been kept low to better handle anticipated runoff. However, "it's challenging to immediately move water out of deluged areas,'' he said.

Most of the rain fell closer to the coast, he said, instead of in conservation areas and Lake Okeechobee, where it's needed in terms of water supply. "While the rain was welcome, this one event is not enough to completely replenish the aquifers," Margasak said.

The weather service received a report of 6 inches in a 90-minute span Thursday night in an area west of Port St. Lucie, according to meteorologist Matt Volkmer. The same weather spotter reported 12.13 inches in the 24-hour period ending about 7 a.m. Friday.

The water management district, which does its own measurements for its counties, recorded 12.99 inches in central St. Lucie County for the 24 hours before 12:15 p.m. Friday. Port St. Lucie saw 3.53 inches, north/central St. Lucie County had 2.93 inches and a Martin County measurement at Florida's Turnpike yielded 1.48 inches.

The weather service recorded 2.33 inches in Vero Beach as of Friday morning, Volkmer said.

Core Communities President Tom Babcock said Tradition had a recorded total of 13 inches of rain in the last 24 hours and recorded 8 inches of rain within four hours last night. Much of the flooding occurred in Tradition Square and between The Landing shopping center and Interstate I-95.

No homes are businesses were damaged from flooding, Babcock said. There are 2,500 homes in Tradition. Babcock said Tradition's drainage system was working as it should. The flooding that took place occured in the streets and parking areas.

"That's a foot of water that has to cover something," Babcock said. "(The system) is designed to flow into the lakes. Water is supposed to back up in the parking areas and streets so it doesn't flood homes and businesses."

Meanwhile, city crews in Port St. Lucie were out in force.

"We've had men out working all night long," Public Works Manager Linda Bagley said.

Bagley said workers filled potholes that had been washed out from the rain.

"We had quite a few cars hit the potholes," she said.

The E8 canal, which empties into the ocean, was 7 1/2 feet above where it should be, Bagley said.

"We're sitting at high tide right now, but that's expected to go down," she said.

Most of the flooding in the city occurred west of town near Gatlin Boulevard, Bagley said.

The city had to deliver sandbags to residents who couldn't access their driveways and some people couldn't access their homes, Bagley said.

In western Port St. Lucie, Allapattah Flats K-8 started Friday, the last day before winter break, wet. The heavy rainfall around the school flooded roads and parking areas. The school ran a shuttle bus from Glades Cutoff Road, so parents could drop off their students without risking getting their cars flooded.

"It's drying out a little bit," he said.

Marty Sanders, executive director of Growth Management, Land Acquisition and Inter-Govermental Relations for the school district, said the school fared well and didn't experience problems. As with all St. Lucie County schools, Friday was an early release day. Sanders said the early dismissal probably was beneficial.

None of the St. Lucie district's other schools reported problems on Friday, Sanders said.

Palm Pointe School in Tradition had some flooding Thursday night, but by the morning it had cleared, he said. Transportation officials called parents in areas experiencing flooding to arrange alternate bus stops if necessary, he said. Transportation also called parents about 7:30 a.m. advising them about flooding and asking for patience if buses were late, Sanders said.

In Tradition, hard hit by flooding, rainfall pooled into a pond and damaged cars Thursday night. Drivers who could get their cars to higher ground had to use a wet/dry vac to suck out all the water.

"The water's all inside the car, it's completely flooded. It's pretty bad. I got a floating Office Max flier in there, so that told me how high the water is. It's all the way up to the seat," said Paul Geraci.

The weather service issued a lake wind advisory for the Treasure Coast to remain in effect until 6 p.m. Friday. The advisory warned that "strong and gusty winds will create rough and hazardous boating conditions on area lakes and Intracoastal waters. This may result in high waves which make tip or swamp small craft."

Hazardous boating conditions "will persist into this weekend," the weather service said.

A tornado warning was declared for Indian River at 4:28 a.m. Friday but canceled about a half-hour later as the worst of the thunderstorms hitting the area before dawn moved offshore.

Stormy weather and a deluge of rain caused havoc throughout South Florida on Friday, leaving tens of thousands without power, spawning a possible tornado in Miami that tossed a woman 80 feet, and forcing rescuers to use boats to evacuate stranded residents.

Staff writers Colleen Wixon, Will Greenlee and Matt Prichard, the Sun-Sentinel and WPTV NewsChannel 5 contributed to this report.